After a short sabbatical from the No. 1 spot, Taylor Swift’s 1989 returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The album makes history as the first to top the chart under Billboard and Nielsen’s new formula.
Last month, Nielsen and Billboard announced that it would begin including online streaming and digital track sales to determine the Billboard 200 album chart. It’s the first major change since 1991, when the chart began to exclusively track actual album sales.
One Direction’s Four was the last No. 1 album under the old format last week, breaking 1989’s three-week reign. However, under the new format, Swift is back.
Billboard reports that 1989 is No. 1 again, with 339,000 units through the week ending on Nov. 30. Of that, 281,000 units were actual albums sold. (So, it still would have returned to No. 1 under the old formula.)
The No. 2 album is Pentatonix’s That’s christmas To Me, which scored 227,000 units. The Shady XV compilation from Eminem’s Shady Records debuted at No. 3 with 148,000 units.
One Direction’s Four fell to No. 4 with 125,000 units. Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour rebounded with 123,000 units.
The rest of the Billboard 200 Top 10 features Rick Ross’ Hood Billionaire (79,000 units); Ariana Grande’s My Everything (72,000); Beyonce’s Beyonce: More Only EP (71,000); Frozen (71,000); and Maroon 5’s V (68,000).
Swift’s “Blank Space” topped the Digital Songs chart again with 342,000 downloads.
image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com